The text, as prepared, of Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s State of the State speech Monday in Medina, Ohio.
Thank
you Mr. President and Mr. Speaker.
Thank you members of the General
Assembly, members of my Cabinet, the people of Medina and, of course, my
wife Karen Kasich and my daughters, Emma and Reese.
Thank you for
being here tonight.
Medina is the hometown of Speaker Batchelder.
This is his final year in the Legislature and Keith and I are going to
miss working with him.
And Keith, thank you for your leadership and
everything you’ve done in the last year.
There will be a lot of
time in the coming year to celebrate Speaker Batchelder’s career, and
let me kick that off tonight.
The Speaker has been a strong and
constant booster of the Ohio Highway Patrol, and in honor of that
support I’m proud to announce that we are renaming the Medina Highway
Patrol Post for him.
Speaker Batchelder, congratulations and thank you
for your service.
Medina is one of Ohio’s great communities, and
like all great places, the reason is its people.
One of Medina’s most
famous citizens was H.G. Blake.
Mr. Blake was an orphan who was raised
by his neighbors.
He tried his hand at medicine and shop-keeping and
the law, and eventually became Speaker of the Ohio House, was elected to
Congress and became a friend of the great Abraham Lincoln.
It was
in 1860, as a freshman member of the U.S. House, at a time when the
debate over slavery was at its most heated and our country was about to
tear itself in two, that Congressman Blake introduced a brave resolution
that had really never been introduced before_a resolution to simply
abolish slavery.
It was one of his first official acts.
There had been
other similar efforts, but up to this point abolitionists in Congress
had been less direct, fearing the backlash of going too far too fast.
Congressman Blake didn’t really have that concern.
He was impatient and
probably a bit of a pot-stirrer_I imagine we would have gotten along
just fine.
Needless to say, Congressman Blake’s resolution was
soundly defeated.
He didn’t win on that day, but he set an example of
courage for others to follow.
Congressman Blake has an elementary
school named for him here in Medina and we’re remembering him still
tonight, 138 years after he died.
Why?
Because he stood up and made a
difference.
What difference will you and I make?
Some of the best times I’ve had in my life have been hiking in the mountains with my family.
When
you start out on a hike you’re moving through the trees and the brush
and you help clear the way for each other, then you scramble over the
scree and the loose rocks and help each other to keep from falling.
After you’ve struggled through the early obstacles you get out on more
solid ground, and you get the first glimpse of your goal_the summit_and
you come together and it lifts your spirits, and you get an extra boost
to keep going.
That’s kind of where we are now in Ohio.
Together we’ve come through a very difficult patch.
We had an $8 billion budget deficit.
We lost 350,000 private sector jobs.
We had just 89 cents in our rainy day fund.
We had lost our hope and feared that our best days were behind us.
That’s
not the Ohio we wanted.
We knew we had to change things, so we took up
the hard work and we moved ahead without fear of failing, and with
urgency and resolve.
We set priorities, we didn’t play favorites,
we made tough choices and we got our budget back in shape.
We turned
around that historic $8 billion shortfall and now have a $1.5 billion
surplus and positive credit outlooks.
We didn’t raise taxes but instead we cut them_we cut them by $3 billion.
We
did it by eliminating the death tax so that if you have a family farm
or a family small business, you can pass it on to your kids.
We
cut small business taxes by 50 percent so the people who provide jobs to
half of our private sector workforce can hire more people.
And we cut income taxes by 10 percent so every Ohioan can take home to their family more of what they
earn.
Ohio’s
economy grows strongest when it grows from the bottom up, not from the
top down.
When Ohioans have more money in their pockets, we’re being
true to the fundamental idea that made our nation great_government works
for the people, not the other way around.
Under the leadership of
Lt. Governor Mary Taylor we’ve created a permanent system to streamline
regulations_and keep them streamlined_so Ohioans benefit from the
commonsense protections they deserve and job creators don’t drown in red
tape.
All of this is helping to unleash Ohioans’ natural energy,
creativity and hard work, and they’ve created more than 170,000 private
sector jobs in three years_that’s 155 new jobs each day for the past
three years_155 families every day getting stronger, more hopeful and
more secure.
We made long overdue investments in education so
students everywhere have the resources to achieve, and we did it by
putting students first, not buildings or equipment or adults.
I’m
especially proud of our work to start turning around Cleveland’s schools
and I applaud Mayor Frank Jackson for bringing together the community
and educators to forge a plan that is working so Cleveland’s kids have
the chance they deserve;
I’m also proud of the work we’re doing
with Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman to reform the city’s schools, and I
invite every other city in Ohio that wants to put children first to come
forward with their plan.
We got our colleges and universities to
work together and write a single, unified plan for new buildings and
construction, and create a new funding system so they’re focused on
helping students graduate, not just competing against each other to sign
up as many as possible.
We’re making breast and cervical cancer screenings available for more low-income women so we can start
saving more lives;
We’re
rebuilding our highways without a gas tax increase, and helping our
cities and towns rebuild their roads and bridges.
We’re also using the
untapped potential of our turnpike to make these efforts as strong as
possible.
In the process we didn’t ignore those in need.
We’re doing a better job of making sure that people with disabilities have the opportunity to work and
live independently;
We’re doing a better job of helping those with addiction;
We’re doing a better job of caring for the mentally ill and their families.
We’re
taking on Ohio’s historically abysmal record on infant mortality and
I’m proud of my wife for her work on this effort in Columbus, together
with City Council President Andy Ginther.
We’re taking on the evil
of human trafficking by going after traffickers and treating the
victims not as criminals but as children of God who need our help.
Every
Ohioan deserves a chance and an equal opportunity to achieve their
God-given potential, and that’s the Ohio we’re rebuilding for everyone.
All
of these things have helped Ohio move up to higher, more solid ground,
and, if you look, the clouds are moving apart and the sun is beginning
to shine, and we can get a glimpse of the summit ahead.
We’ve got much
further to go, but the success we’ve had gives us the confidence to
climb higher.
We’re not hopeless, we’re hopeful.
We’re not wandering,
we have direction.
Let’s keep going.
Going forward we must keep
Ohio’s budget strong and balanced.
We worked hard to restore our
financial health and we must zealously protect it_the reason is jobs.
When
job creators see that Ohio’s budget is in good shape, they’re frankly
shocked.
They look at Washington, with all of the gridlock and debt and
deficits and I’m sure they think that’s how government works
everywhere.
Washington is broken.
Sometimes I wonder if it’s even on
the same planet as the rest of us.
Ohio’s different.
In fact,
we’ve got a balanced budget and a $1.5 billion surplus.
Here we don’t
let state government try to paper over problems with higher taxes, but
instead solve them so Ohioans can keep more of their own money and
businesses have certainty so they can create more jobs.
If we keep
our fiscal house in order it will help us hold onto the jobs we have
and grow new ones as well.
It will also help us attract jobs from
around the country and around the world.
To do that, we’ve also got to
keep working with job creators the right way_and that’s JobsOhio.
The
nation’s business leaders are realizing that our new approach to
economic development is something that sets us apart.
We treat job
creators with respect by giving them peers, business experts and
specialists in their fields to work with_and we work at their speed, the
speed of business, not at the speed of government.
We believe in an
open economy and a free market, not a closed economy controlled by
bureaucrats.
We can’t overestimate just how important it is to
connect with businesses on their level. This was made clear again in our
recent work with Nestle.
I called their senior leaders several
times to build a relationship and encourage them to grow in Ohio.
And
our work paid off when the CEO of Nestle USA called and told me they
were moving their pizza business from Chicago to Solon, and creating 250
jobs in the process.
That’s the kind of call you love to get, but
then he said something that was especially gratifying, he praised the
JobsOhio team for helping Nestle collect the data it needed to make its
decision.
When a company of that caliber compliments JobsOhio for its
ability to add value in a core way, it’s further proof that JobsOhio is
working.
We saw that proof again last year when Chief Executive magazine said Ohio has the most-improved business
climate in the nation.
The
reason that JobsOhio exists is in its name_it’s all about jobs.
We all
want Ohioans to have good job opportunities, because good jobs provide
the paychecks that strengthen families and communities.
And those
paychecks belong to the people who earned them, not to government.
There
are two ways to try and grow an economy: the old way, where government
takes your money and tries to pretend it’s smarter than you and it
spends your money for you_we’ve seen that way fail time and again.
And
there’s the natural way to grow an economy, when you get to keep more of
your own money and you can use it to control your own future.
Out
of respect for the Ohioans who get up every day and go to the mill, the
office, the factory or the farm, out of respect for the small
businesses that are the engines of job creation, we’ve got to keep
cutting taxes.
That’s why I’m proposing another round of tax cuts that will finally succeed in getting Ohio’s tax rate
below 5 percent.
Since
1995, more than $12 billion in income has left Ohio for states with
lower income taxes.
We’ve got to keep our best and brightest in Ohio to
keep fueling our recovery and cutting our taxes helps do it.
Join
me in cutting Ohioans’ income taxes once again, in cutting our small
business taxes once again_and let’s get Ohio’s tax rate under 5 percent.
And
if the reason we’re cutting taxes is to make Ohioans more prosperous,
let’s do our part to make sure that no one is left behind, especially
our minority communities.
One way we can do this is by making sure the
state keeps its commitments to minority business enterprises.
Too often
we’ve seen the state simply ignore its obligations to treat our
neighbors as ourselves.
That’s not acceptable.
Our Administration is
working hard so that we can give people the solid chance they deserve.
It’s not easy and it won’t happen overnight, but it’s the right thing to
do.
We’ve made great strides in education to address some of our
most pressing needs, with the largest increase in state aid in a decade,
and now we can build on that foundation to start taking on other
challenges, including one of Ohio’s_and the nation’s_toughest: the issue
of dropouts.
There’s a 17-year-old girl somewhere, right now,
thinking about not going back to school tomorrow, or ever.
She’s sick
of it.
She couldn’t care less about algebra, she struggles to read
because she was shuffled through elementary school and no one bothered
to help, and don’t even talk to her about learning Spanish.
Tell
me, how do we get her excited about learning?
We need an answer for her
and the 24,000 other Ohio kids who face this same decision and drop out
every year.
They join the 1 million adults in our state who do not
have a high school diploma.
Dropping out is simply a dead end and can
lead to a life of unrealized dreams.
Let’s help get these kids back on
track.
My Administration will be sending ideas to the Legislature
soon to help us do a better job of identifying and reaching out to the
most at-risk kids so we can keep them from dropping out.
Then
we’ll ask local school districts to craft unique plans for these
students that chart an alternative path to their high school diploma.
And if that path takes some of them out of the traditional classroom and
into real-life job training, so be it.
We’ve got to have the courage
to think outside of the box because we’ve got to try to reach every
student.
And for the adults in Ohio without diplomas, we are
starting to build an innovative system to let them work with our
two-year colleges to get high school diplomas, get valuable job
credentials and stand up straight again.
Never before has Ohio
reached out in such a focused way to help dropouts.
It won’t be easy
and it’s going to force all of us to think creatively.
It might take
some time to figure it out, so we’re going to start carefully.
Then,
when we know we’re on the right path, we will expand our efforts to
benefit more people.
Something I hear a lot from teachers is that
parents need to be more involved in their children’s education and that
communities should do more to support their schools.
I agree, so let’s
do it.
We’re launching Community Connectors, an initiative to
support the best ideas for bringing together schools, parents,
communities, faith-based groups, businesses and students in mentoring
efforts based on proven practices.
We’re going to ask the Legislature
to provide $10 million from casino licensing fees to support the effort
and to show that we’re serious, the state will give communities $3 for
every $1 they put in.
All of us in Ohio see needs every day and we
hunger to help, but we don’t know how.
Community Connectors will give
you a chance to listen to that better angel inside all of us and make a
difference in somebody’s life.
If we do this right and do a better
job of connecting our communities with our schools, not only does it
lift up our educators, but more important it lifts up our kids.
We can
show them why learning matters, we can teach them about workplace
culture and professional etiquette.
We can help them appreciate how
important values are to success in life, values like hard work,
discipline and personal responsibility_all of which can help motivate
and inspire them to find their purpose and to reach for the stars.
We
know that the goal of increasing mentoring is the right one and the
research shows it can make a difference.
It’s happening in many places
across Ohio and there are successful examples to guides us, including
the Cincinnati Youth Collaborative_where 80 percent of the students go
on to college, the military or a job; Toledo’s Schools as Community Hubs
program and the United Way’s new efforts in 17 schools as part of the
Cleveland Plan.
What these all have in common is energy_truly
fired up volunteers who are committed to helping kids succeed.
They
also share an unshakeable belief in the exponential power of communities
that come together_schools, parents, business, community and
faith-based groups_everyone who cares about their kids’ futures and
their communities’ futures.
With good examples like these and others, we can find the right formula.
Providing
this same kind of direction is also what’s behind our new online career
roadmaps, coming later this spring.
Young Ohioans will soon be able to
learn about the most in-demand careers right from their phones_and not
only young people, but also the adults in their lives who are guiding
them.
They can learn about the training they’ll need, how much they can
earn and where they can study.
This is just one more way that we’re
doing everything we can to get Ohio students excited about their
futures.
As I’ve traveled the state and visited our schools, some
of the most advanced training I’ve seen anywhere has been in our career
centers.
Why is it that some people have come to dismiss the value of
vocational education?
I recently met with a group of vocational
students in my office and I was so impressed with them.
They were
motivated, smart, excited about what they were studying and had a sense
of direction.
One was preparing to be an accountant, one was preparing
to be a teacher, another was preparing to be a veterinarian and another
wanted to own his own construction company.
All of us would have
been proud to call them our own kids, and that’s why I want to see these
kinds of high-quality experiences in both jobs and learning expanded
down to the 7th grade.
Not only will they be better prepared for high
school and college, but they’ll know more about the career options that
are available to them, so they get excited about school and stay
excited.
Just as vocational education prepares our kids for
careers and college, I believe every Ohio student should have the chance
to prepare for their college degree by earning credit while they’re
still in high school.
Not only does this help reduce costs for
parents and students, but it helps them get motivated and stay focused
on a set of goals_good grades in high school, good grades in college, a
good job and a good career.
This is something that we’ve tried in
Ohio for a long time but too often our students are not encouraged to do
it.
We’re going to fix that, make it work and do it now.
All of
these ideas will be coming out soon as part of a package of proposals to
better connect kids with career opportunities in a meaningful way.
Even
as we work to help better prepare students for college and their
careers, we can’t forget their early years.
To make sure Ohio is doing
everything it can to help our youngest learners, we’re raising the
standards for publicly funded early childhood education so that more
children enter school ready to succeed.
At the same time, we’re going
to make sure we’re spending these important dollars in ways that are
making a difference.
It bears repeating that my hat goes off to
our college and university presidents.
Ohio challenged them to come
together and embrace changes that put Ohio first and their own needs
second and they rose to that challenge.
Not only have we refocused
our higher education building and construction dollars on a singular
statewide vision_no more parochial fighting_but we’ve also refocused
state funding on graduation instead of enrollment.
This means that
Ohio will now be doing something that no other state in the nation has
had the courage to do.
Today I’m proud to announce that 100 percent of
state funding for undergraduate students will be based on how well our
colleges and universities do in guiding them
to complete their courses
and get their degrees.
This puts the right incentives in place to
cement the partnership between students and institutions in pursuit of
the same goals_success in college and in getting a job.
This is a big step forward, and legislation I’m proposing soon will lock the last pieces in place.
We
think of education as something for children and young people, but it’s
more than that.
The fast-changing opportunities of a global
marketplace mean that our skills can fall behind if we’re not careful.
In Ohio we’re building an education system that helps Ohioans succeed
throughout their lives_to get that first job as well as to keep their
skills sharp for whatever comes their way.
One of the best kept
secrets in our state is our veterans.
Not only do they deserve our
thanks for the sacrifices they’ve made for our freedom, they deserve our
help to transition back into civilian life.
That’s why we’re
starting a new effort to give them college and academic credits for the
training and experiences they’ve received in the Armed Forces, and I
want to give them these credits for free.
Whether it’s
engineering, heavy machinery, construction, auto and truck repair, or
advanced technology, the U.S Armed Forces trains more people, in more
sophisticated ways, than probably any other organization in the world.
That training has prepared veterans for many of Ohio’s most in-demand
jobs, and letting them more easily put it to work helps ease their
transition to the home front.
It also helps make Ohio stronger.
If you’ve driven a truck from Kabul to Kandahar I think you’ve earned the right to drive a truck from
Cleveland to Columbus.
There
are still too many Ohioans without a job_you are not forgotten.
Every
day our Administration gets up focused on creating the jobs-friendly
climate that is essential to helping get our people back to work,
because jobs are still Ohio’s greatest moral issue.
But we also can’t
forget those Ohioans who can only dream of being able to hold a job,
people who struggle with mental illness and addiction.
They are part of
our mission also.
We’ve taken a new approach to mental health, so
that families and communities simply have more resources, doctors and
clinics are available in more places, and communities can offer more
care to those in need, including many who may not be poor.
We
should be proud that we’re making a difference.
We are building on this
work by creating more safe places where people in crisis can get the
care they need, so they can stabilize, regain control and be at home
with their families.
All too often we’ve seen what happens if
severe problems are ignored_people can sometimes hurt themselves or
someone else.
By making it easier to get in front of problems before
they boil over, it can mean the difference between despair and hope.
We’ll never solve all the problems associated with mental illness, we
just can’t, but we never give up.
Drug addiction and abuse is another one of our most intractable problems, and we’re fighting it head-on.

For
those of us who aren’t addicts it’s hard to imagine their struggle.
It’s a lifetime journey through the valley, but hopefully we can prevent
as many Ohioans as possible from facing it at all.
We started off
three years ago working with the Attorney General and you, the
Legislature, to shutdown pill mills, and working with the highway
patrol, sheriffs and local law enforcement to crack down on traffickers.
We’ve
worked hand in hand with the medical community to make sure people in
pain get the right dosage without also starting down the path toward
addiction.
By tightening up supplies, we can also help keep
prescription drugs off the street.
We’ve launched a new effort in
our schools called Start Talking, to give parents, teachers and others
that kids look up to, the tools to give them the straight facts about
drugs.
Research shows that by just talking to our kids about drugs they
are 50 percent less likely to start using them at all.
The
momentum is already building.
We’ve spread the message to more than
8,600 students, and engaged 186 student ambassadors to stand up and be
leaders in their schools.
We want every single legislator to talk
to their principals and superintendents to help get this new effort into
every school in Ohio.
And to give you the support you need, we’re
going to dedicate a staff member to working with you to make the process
simple and effective.
Frankly, it’s not enough just to get this
started in our schools, it simply has to become part of the fabric of
our culture.
Together we can warn our kids and fellow citizens
about the dangers of addiction and abuse, help them build the
self-confidence and strength to say no, and we can work to get those who
are addicted the treatment and support they need to begin to recover.
An
addiction that hides in plain sight is tobacco.
Ohio once was a
national leader in smoking cessation efforts and we need to take up this
cause once again.
That’s why today I’m announcing that we’re
dedicating new tobacco settlement funds to the fight against this
addiction, a fight that will help drive down our medical costs and
improve Ohioans’ health.
Can our work against addiction improve
the lives of Ohioans? Yes, of course it can.
Is it easy? No, but it’s
worth it.
It is a fight for the future of our children and our state.
I
know this is a lot of work, and, frankly, I’ve only talked about a
portion of what we’re proposing.
Not all of this will get done this
spring or this summer.
Some of it might not get done this year.
It’s
ok to take our time to get things right, but we can’t drag our feet.
If
we’re not moving forward, we’re moving backward.
We’ve got to let
Ohioans keep more of their hard-earned money, we’ve got to keep more
kids in school, mentor more kids, we’ve got to keep improving our
colleges and universities, giving veterans a hand back into the civilian
workforce, and keep improving mental health and fighting addiction.
As
you know, we’ve been talking more and more about poverty_how to help
people get out of it and how to prevent people from slipping into it to
begin with.
We took some big steps last year, especially in health
care, and the reason for much of what we’re proposing this year is so we
can continue to do more.
But let’s be clear_it’s going to take all of
us, not just the government, to make progress, and we’ll have much more
to say on this in the coming months.
But remember, our greatest
moral purpose will continue to be helping every Ohioan have a chance to
find a job that lets them fulfill their purpose and share in our state’s
growing prosperity.
Yes, we have much more to do, but because of
what we have already accomplished, today I can say that the State of the
State is stronger, more hopeful, more optimistic, more excited and more
confident.
Just as important, remember how we made that progress:
we came together as a state and we came together as leaders.
We know
none of us have a monopoly on good ideas.
We also know that we can
accomplish greater things when we pull together instead of pushing
against one another.
In our unity is our strength.
It’s
unavoidable that some people want to focus on what divides us, but we
should never let politics or the fact that it’s an election year get in
the way of our duty to Ohioans.
Here’s how I see it: if you voted
for me or if you didn’t, I’m your
governor; if you’re a CEO or if
you’re unemployed, I’m you’re governor.
If you’re living in your own
house or if you’re living under a bridge, if you’re an honor student or
if you’re an inmate, I’m your governor.
I’m the governor of all of
Ohio and it’s my duty to serve everyone.
This is my life, this is my
mission.
None of us know how long we have on this earth, but for as
long as I’m here I’m going to do everything I can to bring people
together, to lift up this state and to lift up Ohioans.
Sometimes I
just stand in awe of the human spirit.
I see the things that some
people are able to do and I’m just amazed.
Whether it’s the Ukrainians
standing up to take back their country, a scientist toiling away for
years in a lab to cure a terrible disease or a soldier fearlessly
charging into combat to fight_and possibly die_for freedom, I look at
the great feats that some people achieve and it’s truly inspiring.
We
wonder sometimes where they find the ability to do these great things.
My belief is it comes from a higher power.
Regardless of where you
believe it comes from, we can all agree that learning their stories
lifts us up and helps us go higher ourselves.
Last year the world
heard a story that words can barely describe.
It is a story of hurt
beyond what we can imagine, but it doesn’t end there.
It is also a
story of three women who found an inner strength and a courage that
brought them through and sustained them.
No one rescued them, they
rescued themselves_first by staying strong and sticking together, and
then by literally breaking out into freedom.
It’s because of that
Courage that I’m humbled to present the 2014 Ohio Courage medals to
Amanda Berry, Gina de Jesus and Michelle Knight_three extraordinary
women who, despite having the worst in this world thrown at them_rose
above it and emerged not as victims, but as victors.
They are an
inspiration to us all.
On Saturday, Ohio will be 211 years old.
Our state has seen so much change in that time, and change is certainly
difficult, but once you get it done and move forward, there’s a newness
and a freshness to everything you do and touch.
Together, we’ve
breathed new life into Ohio in just three short years, but we’re not at
the summit yet.
Think about what Ohio will be like when we get there.
Ohio
will be a place where people can attain their dreams because they’re
prepared for the jobs of the 21st century and rugged individuals can
start and grow their own businesses, regardless of their background or
social status, and they will succeed because we won’t let government
stomp them out with mindless rules and high taxes.
Ohio will be a
place where everyone takes responsibility for themselves and where
children have the encouragement and support they need to navigate the
currents of life and enjoy the same success our parents helped provide
for us.
Ohio’s communities will be built on a foundation of the
values that made America great: values like personal responsibility,
self-reliance, compassion, teamwork and faith in our creator.
And our
communities will care for one another and come together to lift those up
who are hurting.
This is the Ohio we are becoming, and the more
we make these goals a reality, the more that Ohio will be recognized as
one of the best places in the world to live, work and raise a family.
We are making Ohio a place where anything is possible.
Government
certainly has a role in all of this, but we’ve all experienced the
limits of government effectiveness when it comes to solving tough
problems.
It’s going to take you and me and our neighbors and our
neighbors’ neighbors all deciding to pitch in if we are going to take
our state further up the mountain toward that summit.
The nation
and the world have their eyes on Ohio.
They see we’re coming back and
they want to know how we’re doing it.
We’re not done, but we’ve made
good progress.
We’re getting there, and it’s great to see it happen and
to be a part of it.
I hope you’ll stay with me on the path as we
go higher.
I hope you’ll keep up the teamwork, keep taking on the
impossible tasks, keep tossing aside the status quo and keep shaking
things up.
If we do, we’ll create the stronger, better Ohio that we all
want.
God bless America, God bless Ohio and God bless our future together.
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